Microbiological contamination by fungi impacts the quality and safety of wheat grain storage. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of cold plasma in restricting the growth of the fungus, Aspergillus niger, which was isolated from wheat grains. A dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) operating at atmospheric pressure generated cold plasma that was used to treat the fungus, and the impact of this treatment was investigated at various periods  1, 2, 4, 6, and 15 minutes. The results revealed a highly significant decrease in the growth and number of spores of Aspergillus niger compared to the controls. This study revealed an efficient technique for enhancing wheat grain storage that could be a foundation for further large-scale studies.

Gamma - irradiation effect on polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) samples has been studied using Positron Annihilation Lifetime (PAL) method. The orthopositronium (o-Ps) lifetime τ₃, hence the o-ps parameters, the volume hole size (V_h) and the free volume fraction (Ꞙ_h) in the irradiated samples were measured as a function of gamma-irradiation dose up to 28.05 kGy. It has been shown that τ ₃, V_h, and Ꞙ_h, are increasing in general with increasing gamma-dose, to reach a maximum percentage increment of 22.42% in τ₃, 60% in V_h and 29.5% in Ꞙ_h, at. 2.55 kGy, whereas τ₂ reaches maximum increment of 119. 7% at 7.65 kGy. The results s

Colloidal crystals (opals) made of close-packed polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) were fabricated and grown by Template-Directed methods to obtain porous materials with well-ordered periodicity and interconnected pore systems to manufacture photonic crystals. Opals were made from aqueous suspensions of monodisperse PMMA spheres with diameters between 280 and 415 nm. SEM confirmed the PMMA spheres crystallized uniformly in a face-centered cubic (FCC) array. Optical properties of synthesized pores PMMA were characterized by UV–Visible spectroscopy. It shows that the colloidal crystals possess pseudo photonic band gaps in the visible region. A combination of Bragg’s law of diffraction and Snell’s law of refraction were used to calculate t

This paper reports an experimental study of welding of dissimilar materials between transparent Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and stainless steel 304 sheets using a pulsed mode Nd:YAG laser. The process was carried out for two cases; laser transmission joining (LTJ) and conduction joining (CJ). The former is achieved when the joint is irradiated from the polymer side and the latter when the joint is irradiated from the opposite side (metal side). The light and process parameters represented by the peak power (Pp), pulse duration (τ), pulse repetition rate (PRR), scanning speed (ν) and pulse shape have a significant effect on the joint strength (Fb), joint bead width (b), joint quality and appearance. The optimum parameters were determined

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the effect of Na2[Fe(CN)5.NO].2H2O impurity (0.1 M) concentration on the dielectrical properties of poly (P-Aminobenzaldehyde) terminated by pheneylenediamine in the frequency and temperature ranges (1-100)KHz and (283-348) K respectively.These properties include dissipation factor, series and parallel resistance, series and parallel capacitance, real and imaginary part of the dielectric constant, a.c conductivity and impedance (real and imaginary) part, that have been deduced from equivalent circuit. The investigation shows that adding Na2[Fe(CN)5.NO].2H2O as additive to the polymer lead to increase of the dielectric constant with increasing temperature and it is decreasing with increasing the freq

       The Sr doped La1Ba1-xSrx Ca2Cu4O8.5+δ samples with 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.3 had been prepared using the solid state reaction. The samples were claimed at 800°C for 3hr, palletized and sintered at 860°C for 20hr in air . Dielectric constant and loss by means of capacitance have been investigated with frequencies in the range of 1kHZ to 1MHZ for our samples at room temperature. Also, Shore hardness has been measured. The dielectric constant and loss decrease slightly with the increase of frequency for all compounds. Additionally, the partial substitution of Sr+2 into Ba+2 sites never have effect on the dielectric properties. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed a tetragonal structure and the

The electrical properties of CdO/porous Si/c-Si heterojunction prepared by deposition of CdO layer on porous silicon synthesized by electrochemical etching were studied. The structural, optical, and electrical properties of CdO (50:50) thin film prepared by rapid thermal oxidation were examined. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results confirmed formation of nanostructured silicon layer the full width half maximum (FWHM) was increased after etching. The dark J-V characteristics of the heterojunction showed strong dependence on etching current density and etching time. The ideality factor and saturation current of the heterojunction were calculated from J-V under forward bias. C-V measurements confirmed that the prepared heterojunctions are abrupt

In this work, the superconducting CuBa2LaCa2Cu4O11+δ compound was prepared by citrate precursor method and the electrical and structural properties were studied. The electrical resistivity has been measured using four probe test to find the critical temperature Tc(offset) and Tc(onset). It was found that Tc (offset) at zero resistivity has 101 K and Tc (onset) has 116 K. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis exhibited that a prepared compound has a tetragonal structure. The crystal size and microscopic strain due to lattice deformation of CuBa2LaCa2Cu4O11+δ were estimated by four methods, namely Scherer(S), Halder-Wagner(H-W), size-strain plot (SSP) and Williamson-Hall, (W-H) methods. Results of crystal sizes obtained by these meth